Enforcement of regulatory guidelines associated with a drive mode of a vehicle

• US 9,137,622 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2012
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenny Insurance Limited (TATA Motors Limited)
• Original Assignee: CloudCar, Inc.
• Inventors: Barrett, Peter, Othmer, Konstantin, Leak, Bruce
• Primary Examiner(s): MEHRA, INDER P
• Application Number:
  US13/664,226
• Publication Number:
  US 20140120890A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,050 Days
• Field of Search: 455/297, 455/418, 455/456.2, 455/517, 701/102, 701/293, 701/421, 701/423
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

In an example, a method of enforcing regulatory guidelines related to functionality of an electronic device associated with a vehicle when the vehicle is in a drive mode includes interfacing an application of an electronic device associated with a vehicle with an Application Programming Interface (API). The method additionally includes determining that the vehicle is in the drive mode. In the method, the API may modify a functionality of the application of the electronic device in accordance with regulatory guidelines associated with operation of the electronic device when the vehicle is in the drive mode. The modification may be based on the determination that the vehicle is in the drive mode.

Claims

1. A method of enforcing regulatory guidelines related to functionality of an electronic device associated with a vehicle when the vehicle is in a drive mode, the method comprising:

interfacing an application of an electronic device associated with a vehicle with an Application Programming Interface (API);

generating a list of one or more approved functions of the electronic device with respect to when the vehicle is in a drive mode based on regulatory guidelines associated with operation of the electronic device; and

generating a list of one or more unapproved functions of the electronic device with respect to when the vehicle is in the drive mode based on the regulatory guidelines;

determining that the vehicle is in a drive mode; and

selectively modifying, via the API, a functionality of the application of the electronic device in accordance with the regulatory guidelines based on the determination that the vehicle is in the drive mode and based on the list of one or more approved functions and the list of one or more unapproved functions, wherein selectively modifying the functionality of the application includes disabling functionality of the application that is included in the list of one or more unapproved functions while maintaining functionality of the application that is included in the list of one or more approved functions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more unapproved functions include at least one of displaying images or video not related to driving, displaying automatically scrolling text, requiring manual text entry of more than a first threshold number of button or key presses during a single task, and requiring reading more than a second threshold number of characters of text.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the vehicle is in the drive mode based on movement of the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the vehicle is in the drive mode based on an input received from a user of the electronic device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the vehicle is in the drive mode based on a transmission of the vehicle being engaged in a gear.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the vehicle is in the drive mode based on an engine of the vehicle running.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the API is included in a vehicular control system of the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the API is included in the electronic device.

9. A processor configured to execute computer instructions to cause a system to perform operations for enforcing regulatory guidelines related to functionality of an electronic device associated with a vehicle when the vehicle is in a drive mode, the operations comprising:

interfacing an application of an electronic device associated with a vehicle with an Application Programming Interface (API);

determining that the vehicle is in a drive mode; and

selectively modifying, via the API, a functionality of the application of the electronic device in accordance with regulatory guidelines associated with operation of the electronic device when the vehicle is in the drive mode based on the determination that the vehicle is in the drive mode, wherein selectively modifying the functionality of the application includes disabling functionality of the application that is unapproved according to the regulatory guidelines while maintaining functionality of the application that is approved according to the regulatory guidelines.

10. The processor of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a list of one or more approved functions of the electronic device with respect to when the vehicle is in the drive mode based on the regulatory guidelines;

generating a list of one or more unapproved functions of the electronic device with respect to when the vehicle is in the drive mode based on the regulatory guidelines;

disabling functionality of the application according to the list of one or more unapproved functions; and

maintaining functionality of the application according to the list of one or more approved functions.

11. The processor of claim 10, wherein the one or more unapproved functions include at least one of displaying images or video not related to driving, displaying automatically scrolling text, requiring manual text entry of more than a first threshold number of button or key presses during a single task, and requiring reading more than a second threshold number of characters of text.

12. The processor of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise determining that the vehicle is in the drive mode based on movement of the vehicle.

13. The processor of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise determining that the vehicle is in the drive mode based on an input received from an occupant of the vehicle.

14. The processor of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise determining that the vehicle is in the drive mode based on a transmission of the vehicle being engaged in a gear.

15. The processor of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise determining that the vehicle is in the drive mode based on an engine of the vehicle running.

16. The processor of claim 9, wherein the API is included in a vehicular control system of the vehicle.

17. The processor of claim 9, wherein the API is included in the electronic device.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processors, causes a system to perform one or more operations, the operations comprising:

interfacing an application of an electronic device associated with a vehicle with an Application Programming Interface (API);

determining that the vehicle is in a drive mode; and

selectively modifying, via the API, a functionality of the application of the electronic device in accordance with regulatory guidelines associated with operation of the electronic device when the vehicle is in the drive mode based on the determination that the vehicle is in the drive mode, wherein the regulatory guidelines include a threshold number of allowed button or key presses for text entry by an operator of the vehicle when the vehicle is in drive mode and wherein selectively modifying the functionality of the application includes disabling text entry functionality that violates the threshold number of allowed button or key presses operations while maintaining text entry functionality of the application that meets the threshold number of allowed button or key presses.